Anita Van Buren
|precinct = 27th Precinct |first = "Sweeps" |last = "Rubber Room" |playedby = S. Epatha Merkerson |family = Donald Van Buren Ric Van Buren Stefan Van Buren Frank Gibson Unnamed sister |status = Alive |occupation = Police officer |title = Lieutenant }} Lieutenant Anita Van Buren was the commanding officer of the 27th Precinct for almost 20 years. She replaced Captain Donald Cragen as head of the precinct in 1993. ( : "Sweeps") History During her lengthy tenure as squad leader of the two-seven, she commanded various detectives; including Lennie Briscoe, Mike Logan, Tony Profaci, Rey Curtis, Sammy Kurtz, Joe Fontana, Nick Falco, Ed Green, Nina Cassady, Cyrus Lupo and Kevin Bernard. In 1994, during an attempted robbery on her while at an ATM, Van Buren shot one of her robbers in the arm, but the bullet passed through and killed the other robber, a mentally disabled kid who was unarmed. Van Buren was ultimately cleared of any wrongdoing in the shooting as she didn't intentionally kill the young man, but it continued to haunt her. She also helped to put away the other robber for the young man's death with the help of the mother of the kid she killed. ( : "Competence") In 1997, she sued the NYPD after a white woman with less experience was promoted over her ( : "Ritual"). Her lawsuit, which resulted in an increased workload upon her precinct in retaliation, was unsuccessful ( : "Bad Girl"; "Monster"). In 2001, Van Buren discovered that a case she solved 12 years earlier had been tainted by a fabricated fingerprint match given to her by her friend in the forensics department, Lisa Russo. As a result, two innocent suspects were imprisoned and one of them died before they could be exonerated. In the end, Russo went to jail for her misconduct. Though Briscoe assured Van Buren that she was not at fault for what happened, she still felt very much guilty as her involvement in the original case was what got her promoted. ( : "Myth of Fingerprints") In 2002, she assisted A.D.A. Ron Carver in setting up a sting operation to arrest another former acquaintance Terry Randolph for murder. ( : "Badge") In 2010, Van Buren spoke of and was seen getting treatment for cervical cancer, which by the end she appeared to have been cured of ( : "Rubber Room"). She presumably retired sometime afterward; as by 2013, Toni Howard was head of the two-seven ( : "Poisoned Motive"). Officer-involved shootings *Zack Rowland ( : "Competence") *James Gordon ( : "Competence") Trivia *Van Buren is the longest-lasting main character of the original Law & Order series; followed by Jack McCoy, Lennie Briscoe and Adam Schiff. *Van Buren was also one of the first female main characters on the show, along with Claire Kincaid. *Van Buren has been a cop for over 30 years. *In "Competence", after she accidentally kills an unarmed mentally challenged kid during an attempted robbery, Van Buren comments that she hadn't had to fire her gun in the entire 12 years she was on the force before that point. *Van Buren is divorced from Donald, who owns a hardware store ( : "Scoundrels"). They have two sons, Ric and Stefan. It is revealed that she spent five years as a patrol officer and seven years in undercover narcotics ( : "Fame"). *She enjoys the poet Langston Hughes and she is left-handed ( : "Slave"). *She is a graduate of John Jay College. *Her father was wounded in Wasu, Korea during the Korean War in 1952. He spent time at Tulsa VA Hospital in Oklahoma ( : "Over Here"). Her sister lives in Queens ( : "Whiplash"). *She attempted three times to have Mike Logan reassigned to her precinct after he was sent to Staten Island. All were unsuccessful, and Logan was eventually assigned to the Major Case Squad ( : "Stress Position"; "Diamond Dogs"). *Some of her detectives often addressed her affectionately by two shortened versions of her rank: "L.T." (commonly used by Rey Curtis, Cyrus Lupo and Kevin Bernard) and "Lieu" (commonly used by Lennie Briscoe and Ed Green). *In Season 20, she begins dating Frank Gibson. Their engagement is announced in the last episode. Appearances *''Law & Order'' (17 seasons, 388 episodes): **Season 4: "Sweeps" • "Volunteers" • "Discord" • "Profile" • "Black Tie" • "Pride and Joy" • "Apocrypha" • "American Dream" • "Born Bad" • "The Pursuit of Happiness" • "Golden Years" • "Snatched" • "Breeder" • "Censure" • "Kids" • "Big Bang" • "Mayhem" • "Wager" • "Sanctuary" • "Nurture" • "Doubles" • "Old Friends" **Season 5: "Second Opinion" • "Coma" • "Blue Bamboo" • "Family Values" • "White Rabbit" • "Competence" • "Precious" • "Virtue" • "Scoundrels" • "House Counsel" • "Guardian" • "Progeny" • "Rage" • "Performance" • "Seed" • "Wannabe" • "Act of God" • "Privileged" • "Cruel and Unusual" • "Bad Faith" • "Purple Heart" • "Switch" • "Pride" **Season 6: "Bitter Fruit" • "Rebels" • "Savages" • "Jeopardy" • "Hot Pursuit" • "Paranoia" • "Humiliation" • "Angel" • "Blood Libel" • "Remand" • "Corpus Delicti" • "Trophy" • "Charm City" • "Custody" • "Encore" • "Savior" • "Deceit" • "Atonement" • "Slave" • "Girlfriends" • "Pro Se" • "Homesick" • "Aftershock" **Season 7: "Causa Mortis" • "I.D." • "Good Girl" • "Survivor" • "Corruption" • "Double Blind" • "Deadbeat" • "Family Business" • "Entrapment" • "Legacy" • "Menace" • "Barter" • "Matrimony" • "Working Mom" • "D-Girl" • "Turnaround" • "Mad Dog" • "Double Down" • "We Like Mike" • "Passion" • "Past Imperfect" • "Terminal" **Season 8: "Thrill" • "Denial" • "Navy Blues" • "Harvest" • "Nullification" • "Baby, It's You" • "Blood" • "Shadow" • "Burned" • "Ritual" • "Under the Influence" • "Expert" • "Castoff" • "Grief" • "Faccia a Faccia" • "Divorce" • "Carrier" • "Stalker" • "Disappeared" • "Burden" • "Bad Girl" • "Damaged" • "Tabloid" • "Monster" **Season 9: "Cherished" • "DWB" • "Bait" • "Flight" • "Agony" • "Scrambled" • "Venom" • "Punk" • "True North" • "Hate" • "Ramparts" • "Haven" • "Hunters" • "Sideshow" • "Disciple" • "Harm" • "Shield" • "Juvenile" • "Tabula Rasa" • "Empire" • "Ambitious" • "Admissions" • "Refuge (1)" • "Refuge (2)" **Season 10: "Gunshow" • "Killerz" • "DNR" • "Merger" • "Justice" • "Marathon" • "Patsy" • "Blood Money" • "Sundown" • "Loco Parentis" • "Collision" • "Mother's Milk" • "Panic" • "Entitled" • "Fools For Love" • "Trade This" • "Black, White and Blue" • "Mega" • "Surrender Dorothy" • "Untitled" • "Narcosis" • "High & Low" • "Stiff" • "Vaya Con Dios" **Season 11: "Endurance" • "Turnstile Justice" • "Dissonance" • "Standoff" • "Return" • "Burn, Baby, Burn" • "Amends" • "Thin Ice" • "Hubris" • "Whose Monkey is it Anyway?" • "Sunday in the Park with Jorge" • "Teenage Wasteland" • "Phobia" • "A Losing Season" • "Swept Away - A Very Special Episode" • "Bronx Cheer" • "Ego" • "White Lie" • "Whiplash" • "All My Children" • "Brother's Keeper" • "School Daze" • "Judge Dread" • "Deep Vote" **Season 12: "Who Let the Dogs Out?" • "Armed Forces" • "For Love or Money" • "Soldier of Fortune" • "Possession" • "Formerly Famous" • "Myth of Fingerprints" • "The Fire This Time" • "3 Dawg Night" • "Prejudice" • "The Collar" • "Undercovered" • "DR 1-102" • "Missing" • "Access Nation" • "Born Again" • "Girl Most Likely" • "Equal Rights" • "Slaughter" • "Dazzled" • "Foul Play" • "Attorney Client" • "Oxymoron" • "Patriot" **Season 13: "American Jihad" • "Shangri-La" • "True Crime" • "Tragedy on Rye" • "The Ring" • "Hitman" • "Open Season" • "Asterisk" • "The Wheel" • "Mother's Day" • "Chosen" • "Under God" • Absentia" • "Star Crossed" • "Bitch" • "Suicide Box" • "Genius" • "Maritime" • "Seer" • "House Calls" • "Sheltered" • "Couples" • "Smoke" **Season 14: "Bodies" • "Bounty" • "Patient Zero" • "Shrunk" • "Blaze" • "Identity" • "Floater" • "Embedded" • "Compassion" • "Ill-Conceived" • "Darwinian" • "Payback" • "Married with Children" • "City Hall" • "Veteran's Day" • "Can I Get a Witness?" • "Hands Free" • "Evil Breeds" • "Nowhere Man" • "Everybody Loves Raimondo's" • "Vendetta" • "Gaijin" • "Caviar Emptor" • "C.O.D." **Season 15: "Paradigm" • "The Dead Wives Club" • "The Brotherhood" • "Coming Down Hard" • "Gunplay" • "Cut" • "Gov Love" • "Cry Wolf" • "All in the Family" • "Enemy" • "Fixed" • "Mammon" • "Ain't No Love" • "Fluency" • "Obsession" • "The Sixth Man" • "License to Kill" • "Dining Out" • "Sects" • "Tombstone" • "Publish and Perish" • "Sport of Kings" • "In God We Trust" • "Locomotion" **Season 16: "Red Ball" • "Flaw" • "Ghosts" • "Age of Innocence" • "Life Line" • "Birthright" • "House of Cards" • "New York Minute" • "Criminal Law" • "Acid" • "Bible Story" • "Family Friend" • "Heart of Darkness" • "Magnet" • "Choice of Evils" • "Cost of Capital" • "America, Inc." • "Thinking Makes It So" • "Positive" • "Kingmaker" • "Hindsight" • "Invaders" **Season 17: "Fame" • "Avatar" • "Home Sweet" • "Fear America" • "Public Service Homicide" • "Profiteer" • "In Vino Veritas" • "Release" • "Deadlock" • "Corner Office" • "Remains of the Day" • "Charity Case" • "Talking Points" • "Church" • "Melting Pot" • "Murder Book" • "Good Faith" • "Bling" • "Fallout" • "Captive" • "Over Here" • "The Family Hour" **Season 18: "Called Home" • "Darkness" • "Misbegotten" • "Bottomless" • "Driven" • "Political Animal" • "Quit Claim" • "Illegal" • "Executioner" • "Tango" • "Betrayal" • "Submission" • "Angelgrove" • "Burn Card" • "Bogeyman" • "Strike" • "Personae Non Gratae" • "Excalibur" **Season 19: "Rumble" • "Challenged" • "Lost Boys" • "Falling" • "Knock Off" • "Sweetie" • "Zero" • "Chattel" • "By Perjury" • "Pledge" • "Lucky Stiff" • "Illegitimate" • "Crimebusters" • "Rapture" • "Bailout" • "Take-Out" • "Anchors Away" • "Promote This!" • "All New" • "Exchange" • "Skate or Die" • "The Drowned and the Saved" **Season 20: "Memo From The Dark Side" • "Just a Girl in the World" • "Great Satan" • "Reality Bites" • "Dignity" • "Human Flesh Search Engine" • "Boy Gone Astray" • "Doped" • "For the Defense" • "Shotgun" • "Fed" • "Blackmail" • "Steel-Eyed Death" • "Boy on Fire" • "Brilliant Disguise" • "Innocence" • "Four Cops Shot" • "Brazil" • "Crashers" • "The Taxman Cometh" • "Immortal" • "Love Eternal" • "Rubber Room" *''Exiled: A Law & Order Movie'' *''Law & Order: Criminal Intent'' (1 season, 1 episode): **Season 1: "Badge" *''Law & Order: Trial by Jury'' (1 season, 1 episode): **Season 1: "Skeleton" de:Anita Van Buren Category:Homicide Department Category:L&O Characters Category:L&O Main Characters Category:CI Characters Category:TBJ Characters Category:Lieutenants Category:Females Category:Crossover Characters Category:NYPD Characters Category:Former Police Officers Category:Harassment Victims Category:Retired or Resigned